Hi, I'm not me! :)

~ "In a world where you can be anything, be kind." ~

~ "Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control." ~

Goodhart's Law dictates that there exists no optimal bio

https://avalon.ist

 You come at the king, you best not miss.

Discord: Ba3henov#9002

If you have a problem with me flaming you then stop playing with me, it's as simple as that :)

My name is Maximus Imbaus Pingerus Meridius, Commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. 
Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next. @pingu#0623

The law states: a chicken found within fifty cubits of a coop belongs to the owner of the coop; a chicken found farther away belongs to the finder.

Rabbi Jeremiah asked: "If one leg of the chicken is within fifty cubits and one is outside of fifty, what is the law?”

For this, Rabbi Jeremiah was thrown out of the study hall.

— Bava Batra 23b

Shoot, cry, go next !!!

[13:36] XiaoWeiXiao: harsh is very merliny

[15:24] FruitQueen: harsh is mvp

[23:32] pam: idk why everyone loves harsh

[13:16] baddummy: i gmed harsh

[13:16] baddummy: good luck

just give me percy

I am permanently retiring from playing Avalon. If I try to rejoin, please don't let me. This game and this community are both unhealthy for me on so many levels and even though I love so many people here and I love playing the game itself, I can't keep putting myself through this. The more I play since rejoining, the more I keep finding myself turning back into who I used to be - someone I'm deeply ashamed of being. I made so much progress on myself to a point where I was finally somewhat happy being the person that I am over my 9 month hiatus, and returning has only prompted a relapse of embodying this negativity that I have tirelessly tried to strip myself from. 

Please forgive me if I've hurt you in some way, because I'm struggling to forgive myself too.

My discord is CITC#6760 if you want to talk some time. I'd love to hear from you. Take care.

My Name isn't actually Maria. I am resident potato warrior queen of this site.

Muse: "Her Royal Amazingness, Resser of Res, Spier of Spies, Head of the Loyal Hufflepoofs and Ruler of All That Is Cute, the one and only [maria]"

LIL CAN GET REKT ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)!!!

(thanks for the doodle though :D)

Name: Percival 

Father: Merlin

Parents age: Deceased

Hot New Wife: Morgana

Offapp 2.3 in my honour.

To,

acro, Armthur, Aster, ba3henov, bb, CITC, damon, IonGrey, J0nY, meir, morgenstern, not.me, NyanCat, ognjen05, ProNub Scaff, Strahd, Tyrrox, zuzusangry.

All of you are wonderful, incredible people and it's been a pleasure to meet and know every single one of you.

Special thanks to user jack for making my Link avatar <3.

I can't tell you how much you guys mean to me without being mega cringe about it.

Good luck to all of you. Take care, (except you J0nY you're the human equivalent of an anthropomorphic toilet plunger)

Lots of Love,

JB.

~Playing since June 21 2018
Banned on 29th December 2020 for 4 months bc irl. :( cya guys soon <3

I just want to play. Give me a game pleaseee...

just really happy bb is back

Hi :)

[21:55] Tyrrox: I dont like soph's play as a vt play

[21:55] Tyrrox: its just too happy

Hi friends, I’m a happy vt!

iykyk

Great Quotes for Avalon & for Life

1. "Be humble"

2. "If u kno u kno"

3. “We live in a society”

4. "WE DONT ALLOW NAKEDS"

5. "Even wrong info is better than no info"

6. "Stand for something or you'll fall for anything"

7. "One can give advice comfortably from a safe port"

8. "It is very important in life to know when your cue comes"

9. “It is not about the things you do, but the things you follow”

10. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"

11. "In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way."

12. “To live—is not that just endeavouring to be otherwise than this Nature? Is not living valuing, preferring, being unjust, being limited, endeavouring to be different?

13. "If I shut him up too soon—even though I might be convinced he was the man, I should very likely be depriving myself of the means of getting further evidence against him. And how? By giving him, so to speak, a definite position, I shall put him out of suspense and set his mind at rest, so that he will retreat into his shell.”

14. "What's the use of formality? In many cases it's nonsense. Sometimes one has a friendly chat and gets a good deal more out of it. One can always fall back on formality, allow me to assure you. And after all, what does it amount to? An examining lawyer cannot be bounded by formality at every step. The work of investigation is, so to speak, a free art in its own way, he-he-he!"

15. “It was the most maddening thing about the piggies. Whenever they had something outrageous to say, they always blamed it on some dead piggy who couldn’t possibly have said it. No doubt there was some religious ritual involved: go to their totem tree, ask a leading question, and lie there contemplating the leaves or the bark or something until you get exactly the answer you want.”

Credits:

1. Morgenstern

2. Sidewalkill

3. Joker

4. Me

5. Me

6. Unknown

7. Friedrich Schiller

8. Søren Kierkegaard

9. Me

10. Edmund Burke & John Stuart Mill (applied by Maddie)

11. Franklin Delano Roosevelt

12. Friedrich Nietzsche & (applied by Comp1ex)

13. Fyodor Dostoevsky

14. Fyodor Dostoevsky

15. Orson Scott Card & (applied by Meir)

Magnificent Me - Ultimate Gamer, Chess Player, Writer, and aspiring Magician

Currently playing SSBM, GE 64, and PD for fun at local gaming store.

You're probably wondering to yourself

How the FUCK does Bremen have a 50% win rating at spy?

Literally i'm ass lol

🥇 Legend Ice Dragon

"Fight! You must fight! If you win, you live. If you lose, you die. If you don't fight, you can't win!"

Helliuuu! Wait, bruh moment here

How to play Merlin:

[07:50] anonymouse255: I auto res pingy for being nice to me :D [07:50] anonymouse255: i don't care if he's a spy or not :)

1. [18:10] Yhromed T1: we can either keep shooting pingy to eventually decrease his merlin wr, or use our brain

Gold AND Silver rules

tofy

Sometimme in January

lapery824

I used to play Among Us, but since all the Res players started playing I had to stop.

Stop adding Lovers to games!

MVP List (Based on recent games):

theharshone, pro 5p percy

Starbird, became a god in all roles

Eternal MVPS:

Dev. Best Assassin (when playing as VT)

Buncha, Can spy clean all game and still get shot

It is always cruel to laugh at people, of course, although sometimes if they are wearing an ugly hat it is hard to control yourself.

[21:22] newman: kastis is not merlin

[21:22] newman: they do that as any role lol

After I offapp clean m2 repick at 4.1 as merlin

am bb

주체사상

Tyrrox#0001 | 21 | Alarmingly British | If I'm talking to you I'm getting info from you.

TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX TySUX 

WE WONS!!

pm me at side#3261

my name backwards is pig haha

There is no such thing as a misclick!

If you want to know what my name stands for read it backwards

You desire to LIVE "according to Nature"? Oh, you noble Stoics, what fraud of words! Imagine to yourselves a being like Nature, boundlessly extravagant, boundlessly indifferent, without purpose or consideration, without pity or justice, at once fruitful and barren and uncertain: imagine to yourselves INDIFFERENCE as a power—how COULD you live in accordance with such indifference? To live—is not that just endeavouring to be otherwise than this Nature? Is not living valuing, preferring, being unjust, being limited, endeavouring to be different? And granted that your imperative, "living according to Nature," means actually the same as "living according to life"—how could you do DIFFERENTLY? Why should you make a principle out of what you yourselves are, and must be? In reality, however, it is quite otherwise with you: while you pretend to read with rapture the canon of your law in Nature, you want something quite the contrary, you extraordinary stage-players and self-deluders! In your pride you wish to dictate your morals and ideals to Nature, to Nature herself, and to incorporate them therein; you insist that it shall be Nature "according to the Stoa," and would like everything to be made after your own image, as a vast, eternal glorification and generalism of Stoicism! With all your love for truth, you have forced yourselves so long, so persistently, and with such hypnotic rigidity to see Nature FALSELY, that is to say, Stoically, that you are no longer able to see it otherwise—and to crown all, some unfathomable superciliousness gives you the Bedlamite hope that BECAUSE you are able to tyrannize over yourselves—Stoicism is self-tyranny—Nature will also allow herself to be tyrannized over: is not the Stoic a PART of Nature?... But this is an old and everlasting story: what happened in old times with the Stoics still happens today, as soon as ever a philosophy begins to believe in itself. It always creates the world in its own image; it cannot do otherwise; philosophy is this tyrannical impulse itself, the most spiritual Will to Power, the will to "creation of the world," the will to the causa prima.

1. [14:55] Xzoo: a buh-buh-buh de hhuh nuh huh
2. 
   
3. [14:56] jonah: buh buh
4. 
   
5. 
   
6. 
   
7. 
   
8. [12:49] morningcatt M: SHUTTJQFREKLIGHJERQBHJREFNQBJRKE FJB EFCN ECDQ WEDN MFQWRJERVWHBLKVREWLBHKHLBKREVWEWLJEWVRHBLIERWVHBIHBJLCREQEHWJBLEF HJ LJVGUCERWKGHUREKWCGHJRKHEJWFKHEGRJKGHUREFWJHREFWGJKGFJQKGVGRJEKFWDEFWKJGFLE1DJFBLJDEHWBFKJREWHGFKGHJECR

Worship, play

If you lick me during M1's I will onpick you as hammer

contains bubbles.

am maggie#3453 on discord <3

when I'm merlin:

[18:36] rotem123456: consider raz

[18:36] rotem123456: for a sec

[18:36] rotem123456: look at

[18:37] rotem123456: nahhh

[18:38] The assassin has shot jiop! jiop was not merlin, razrez was!

[18:38] The resistance wins!

when I'm percival to DarkMerlin:

[15:49] Bonefish: Dark isn't merlin

[15:50] rotem123456: right

[15:55] The assassin has shot razrez! razrez was not merlin, DarkMerlin was!

[15:55] The resistance wins!

This is all so fascinating.

yes, I offapped dirty. sue me.

lol

happy birthday

[15:35] ahkj: that's because you pick flanders and harsh so i thought by picking flanders and harsh, I am ressing you :/

make senses
Why I quit res? I don know how to play res with illogical people. 

this site has a bunch of racists on it dont bother playing here

[21:32] Mission 1 failed with 2 fails.

[16:00] Mission 5 failed with 3 fails.

[16:00] The spies win!

1. [23:28] Mission 3 failed with 3 fails.
2. [23:28] The spies win!

1. [21:02] bobjones: wait hades onrejjs 3.2
2. [21:02] bobjones: aight fuckit im shooting pam
3. [21:02] The assassin has shot pam! pam was not merlin, Hades was!

1. [16:28] Mission 4 failed with 3 fails.
2. [16:28] The spies win!

1. [23:55] bobjones: fuckit
2. [23:55] bobjones: 50/50
3. [23:55] The assassin has shot AmuseD! They were correct!
4. [23:55] The spies win!

1. [13:00] bobjones: would third do 2.4 as merlin
2. [13:00] bobjones: fuckit i hate long assassination talks
3. [13:00] The assassin has shot Third! They were correct!

1. [14:30] skimisgod: i know how I just don't know who to choose
2. [14:30] bobjones: eh just shoot jen for fun
3. [14:30] The assassin has shot ognjen05! They were correct!
4. [14:30] The spies win!

1. [17:44] Armthur: Shoot bob yeah
2. [17:44] Armthur: Sounds like a plan
3. [17:44] RadiantCowbells: i'd shoot bob here
4. [17:45] bobjones: i would shoot bob here
5. [17:45] playerzzz: so bob is never merlin
6. [17:45] The assassin has shot RadiantCowbells! RadiantCowbells was not merlin, bobjones was!
7. [17:45] The resistance wins!

1. [20:16] J0nY: bobjones is so weird

1. [17:55] pingy: BREMIS WORKING ALWAYS 90% WINRATE FOR SURE BREMIS IS LOVE BREMIS IS LIFE

1. [13:54] DiseasedDonkey: whos the most wholesome active user then
2. [13:55] Lillyneth: id say pingu
   
3. 
   
4. [18:37] helloperson: m1 +Third?
5. [18:38] Third: no hello, i am gonna go hard on you since you took pingu's attention from me

not a SOLID player

Mercury’s hot too

Arthur

shoot the lovers, I DARE YOU

stop stalking me

not gonna lie [female] is pretty hot sad day she is in [country]

ok so there’s this conference for like medicine development and shit and i wanna get in cuz

1. It helps me for future

2. It’s in [country]

1 like = 1 moral support for this poor boy

[23:55] DrPercival: i never go back on my picks

hai, am a tiny little tofu trying to find my place in the world

REEEEEEE

the first c in citc stands for cottage

Someone start an Avalon Anonymous group for me. I need help.

Can my VT ever not get fked by PRs?

no i’m not actually new lol 

Professional flamer and professor at keeling university. Besties with viola and confirmed sexy by avehunter. Bit of crazy, bit of genius, but mostly crazy. Will return when you least expect it.

Biew is my brother!

If I'm tired, then I may make awful plays, and you should tell me to sleep.

If I'm not tired, I'll still make awful plays, but hopefully the good plays will compensate.

cash money

Blacklist:

Abiogenesiz

babyshark

CS Student, Software Developer, Board game addict.    bocaben#8290

Why tf are you here

Aladdin my fav bollywood movie                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Diana is a cutie

life goes on

[22:42] cottage: Avalon to SH is like a five star restaurant to mcdonalds

They call me Merlin

dont keel me or i wheel be sad

help me please im got no braincells left

UnderCoverSpy

~ :) :) :) :) :) :) :) ~

I AM NOOB. 

BOT ARMY SERGEANT

Hello, I'm Daniel! It's nice to see you here!

P.S. I can't Merlin

P.P.S. I can't Percival either (okay, maybe I can Percival)

Okay, I can res more than spy :(

Also, many people think I am mathwizardaz. This is false. I am a completely different person.

I am also not ambition. This is my first account. (Technically my second but I quickly forgot the password to my first account before anyone significantly remembered me)

A thing I have been thinking about for a while, when someone offpicks m1,

they are claiming 1 res and 1 spy, so that means if you are a res on the mission,

the other person is probably a spy, meaning you should reject...

1. [23:19] MathNoob: I might leave myself tbh :(
2. [23:19] theharshone has joined the room.
3. [23:19] MathNoob: or not
4. [23:19] theharshone: WHAT
5. [23:19] theharshone: UP
6. [23:19] Lucid: ya I agree with what you were saying math, theharshone is a noob
7. [23:19] Lucid: OOPS
8. [23:19] theharshone: HEY MATHNOOB
9. [23:19] theharshone: I HEARD THAT
10. [23:20] MathNoob: I didn't say anything
11. 
    
12. 
    
13. 
    
14. [10:44] sb: well for now it's seems like math
15. [10:44] Armthur has joined the room.
16. [10:44] sb: is conf the one we won't shoot
17. 
    
18. I was Merlin lol

Flame moment...

[18:01] euphoria: fucking pathetic low elo tier trash garbage math, dont fucking dare to show your face in my games, fucking horrible player

Okay, buddy.

Taro Baap

The self-proclaimed Worst Player

1. [22:24] starbird1002 M: RC, percies unpercy as much as they like to percy

D:

I res our Supreme Leader

hi

I can even add a video here

Dats crazy

300 games edit:

Yeah I can't win as res yeah I out spy yeah as both roles. Don't lick me, just don't. Thank you

I had a screenshot of faico telling me to shut up here but the upload keeps failing, kiss ur eyes faico.

[15:28] Hyenovic: The person I claim spy, is outed spy!

UwUOwOPleaseDieNow:3

This guy sucks being a perci

1. [13:43] canon7575: [13:18] NyanHat: lol [13:19] NyanHat: [15:15] seren: canon you can have the award of being one of the most mentally disabled people I played with on this site, a pretty difficult achievement tbh [15:15] Maria has left the lobby. [15:16] Maria has joined the lobby. [15:16] canon7575: ty seren [15:16] canon7575: this award is an honor, will cherish [13:19] NyanHat: can i frame this
2. [13:43] canon7575: xD there you go

Best Merlin EU (I claim perci ALOT)

"I knew exactly what to do. But in a more real sense, I had no idea what to do." -Micheal Scott (talking about Avalon obviously)

discord.gg/spyparty

Just a normal Australian nerd ;)

What is logic?

Remember the last time we hugged? Maybe it really was the last time. They’re all still alive, but last summer I think I saw my grandparents for the last time and last month I think I saw some classmates for the last time; every time is the last time when we don’t meet regularly. This right now is our last time together - can’t we always be like this? Why does anything or anyone have to disappear forever? Why can’t everything stay? Why does that beautiful glowing shade of yellow have to exist, even if it’s only in my imagination? For now I am safe in your arms, but the instant we let go I’ll miss you - my friends, my memories, the orchestra we played our hearts out in - I’ll miss you until next time, the final time, just like last time was the last time, that is to say, I’ll be missing you forever.

- Vincent Huang, "A Slice of My Mind"

hi k9 u suck stop looking at my stats

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDEGHEDFOro&t=1154s

1. [23:18] steampunkbaby: I want to be a guy so bad!

🦶👁👄👁🦶

Hello

imagine playing this game on a computer lol could not be me

I get carried every time

Regarded As The Best Merlin In The European Region. 

Hall of quotes:

            slightly: I'll morg anyone that even considers me bad

            Shabs: Are you counterclaiming my dyslexia?

            slightly: Slime picks anti m1 first

            Garrison: Alright

            Garrison: We can kill iconic?

            Sushiconduit: I'm getting fear spied 

            MatrixTalents: Freak you spied me even when I claimed Percy

            Chickenn: Welcome to Freak town

            1CE1: I'll flip a coin to morg someone right now

            hyb: I'll chop your head off with a machete
            hyb: Now shut your mouth
            hyb: Your dad cut your foreskin off with that machete
            slogival: I'll shove it up ur fucking ass and bring it out ur throat and slice ur balls off with it at the same time

            Jcplayz: Let's say Bezzy's a candidate

            FreaKNastY: haha lets say hypothetically im savagely chaotic and im morging both merlin candidates

My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvbJccPNvXu3yPdk_xybUFw

Discord: NyanCat#1142

secrethitler.io: Nyan

theresistanceplus.com: NyanCat

a.k.a. NyanCat, Raven, T, BBsAlt, CallMeWhenYouGetThere, BreadyForCurie, BiggerPamFanThanYou, Celia, Meowlin, HomochromaticHippopotami

Favorite quotes:

"Go milk a duck"

"WE DONT ALLOW NAKEDS"

“Even wrong info is better than no info”

"The unauthorized distribution of promotional content on behalf of a third party organization is strictly prohibited at this establishment"

🥺 join angy simp army 2020 🥺

[21:09] speedforced: angy come up with a team or die

[21:09] angy: why my peepee hard

I play avalon

I'm The Clairvoyant 

That bad, dumb, and non-traditional player everyone knows

P.S: Don't expect me to make smart choices in game as a res, I'm a bad player. (As multiple people have told me thus far)

P.P.S: I suck at res :) 

P.P.P.S: If you're my spy mate I EXPECT YOU TO CARRY ME 

I honestly have no clue what I am doing.

[01:23] baddummy: i accused 1.5

[01:23] baddummy: ando overrode me

[01:23] baddummy: i apped 5.1

[01:23] baddummy: ando overrode me

[01:24] baddummy: ando overriding merlin

[01:24] baddummy: for breakfast

i'm much better than putler

⚡️please be kind, we were all new once ⚡️

[17:16] angy: spemdformced

[22:24] speedforced: nooo don't mute me hahaha ur so sexy

[21:51] angy: i would like to think i am 40x nicer than dag

[15:05] cococo has left the room.

[15:05] cococo has joined the room.

[15:05] dagnab: welcome back

[15:05] dagnab: you missed a lot

[15:05] dagnab: we formed a mariachi band

[15:05] cococo has left the room.

[15:05] dagnab: guess coco doesn't like smooth jazz

1. [20:36] CITC M: dagnab
2. [20:36] CITC M: angy told me a secret
3. [20:36] angy: here we fucking go again
4. [20:36] dagnab: is it that im a sociopath
5. [20:36] CITC M: she told me that she thinks ur a good friend
6. [20:36] CITC M: wtf lol
7. [20:36] dagnab: huh plot twist

1. [17:06] Daniella: wow i didnt flame u
2. [17:06] Daniella: u must be pretty good
   [23:49] SUPERKUSHAL: DAGnag pro
3. 
   (this was in reference to this bio! deal w it u dicks)
   [23:12] meir: When did all these great new ppl join

-silenced-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOZuxwVk7TU

Guo Jia , avalon

help me

🦑 ASSASSINATION IS EDUCATION 🦑

add me on discord anticharm#1872

[14:09] fwfw: im just approving anything cuz yall trippin

seren is my alt

citc was here 23-09-2019

This life of games and diligent trust, its the things we do, and the things we must. I'm now tired of being cussed so go to sleep forever end to dust.

Seem to be getting better at this game. Used to a play a lot back in 2017 under ChessChampion1, you might remember me :) 

1. [11:32] Maximovic96: uncle is percival isnt he
2. [11:35] Maximovic96: if its uncle kms
3. [11:36] The assassin has shot Ref-Rain! Ref-Rain was not merlin, ImpotentUncle was!
4. [11:36] The resistance wins!

Proving that P = NP one step at a time.

[01:21] [redacted]: is pronub really good?

    [14:47] waelawkjrlkr: i wish to make ppl i roast
    [14:47] waelawkjrlkr: laugh and cry
    [14:47] waelawkjrlkr: at the same time

follow me on tiktok! same username

I sometimes onreject to see more proposals or because a mission would look bad to me even if I was basic resistance.

In 6p/8p/10p, I'll app critical as picker. In other counts I'll reject as picker.

I'll spy people who offapp dirty.

🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀

Nick hot

1. [19:38] Maximovic96: king of the bongo

I am very good at Merlin!

Control is the basis of all true power. Authority and strength are matters of perception.

Queen of Alethkar, Elsecaller, Veristitalian, heretic

seren is my main

comig sans

Don’t stop fighting untill the last moment 

Gigagoon

hello i am leler, i like to drink water, nice to meet you!

what's crack'a'lackin'

Pls help I suck :(

im bad

im merlin 

Mission 1 failed with 2 fails. 

🐸

August is my first month - I'm learning this as I go and putting it all into practice. Still getting the hang of the PR roles :)

Ba Subiendo La Corriente

im nacho and im cool kid

*******: All of yesterday I was licking the lady

Neeko neeko ni!  ~

Okay Booomer

That one guy who claims merlin at the start of every game... xD

I AM YONG BOY FROM ARMENIA THAT IS BEING HELD CAPTIVE TO FILL 10 MAN RES LOBBIES. PLEASE HELP!!!!

is there an echo in here?

[05:19] notlime: i just want to be a role that percy cannot see

I love Jesus

Zilbi Nezek (Zil=Nezek)

Press here to admit that Zilbi Nezek.

Ummm...Hi!



Prussia (/ˈprʌʃə/; German: Preußen, pronounced [ˈpʁɔʏsn̩] (listen)) was a historically prominent German state that originated in 1525 with a duchy centred on the region of Prussia on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It was de facto dissolved by an emergency decree transferring powers of the Prussian government to German Chancellor Franz von Papen in 1932 and de jure by an Allied decree in 1947. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organised and effective army. Prussia, with its capital in Königsberg and from 1701 in Berlin, decisively shaped the history of Germany.

In 1871, German states (notably excluding Austria) united to create the German Empire under Prussian leadership. In November 1918, the monarchies were abolished and the nobility lost its political power during the German Revolution of 1918–19. The Kingdom of Prussia was thus abolished in favour of a republic—the Free State of Prussia, a state of Germany from 1918 until 1933. From 1933, Prussia lost its independence as a result of the Prussian coup, when the Nazi regime was successfully establishing its Gleichschaltung laws in pursuit of a unitary state. With the end of the Nazi regime, in 1945, the division of Germany into allied-occupation zones and the separation of its territories east of the Oder–Neisse line, which were incorporated into Poland and the Soviet Union, the State of Prussia ceased to exist de facto.[2][3] Prussia existed de jure until its formal abolition by the Allied Control Council Enactment No. 46 of 25 February 1947.[4]

The name Prussia derives from the Old Prussians; in the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights—an organized Catholic medieval military order of German crusaders—conquered the lands inhabited by them. In 1308, the Teutonic Knights conquered the region of Pomerelia with Gdańsk (Danzig). Their monastic state was mostly Germanised through immigration from central and western Germany, and, in the south, it was Polonised by settlers from Masovia. The Second Peace of Thorn (1466) split Prussia into the western Royal Prussia, a province of Poland, and the eastern part, from 1525 called the Duchy of Prussia, a fief of the Crown of Poland up to 1657. The union of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701.

Prussia entered the ranks of the great powers shortly after becoming a kingdom,[5][6][7][8] and exercised most influence in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 18th century it had a major say in many international affairs under the reign of Frederick the Great. During the 19th century, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck united the German principalities into a "Lesser Germany", which excluded the Austrian Empire.

At the Congress of Vienna (1814–15), which redrew the map of Europe following Napoleon's defeat, Prussia acquired rich new territories, including the coal-rich Ruhr. The country then grew rapidly in influence economically and politically, and became the core of the North German Confederation in 1867, and then of the German Empire in 1871. The Kingdom of Prussia was now so large and so dominant in the new Germany that Junkers and other Prussian élites identified more and more as Germans and less as Prussians.

The Kingdom ended in 1918 along with other German monarchies that collapsed as a result of the German Revolution. In the Weimar Republic, the Free State of Prussia lost nearly all of its legal and political importance following the 1932 coup led by Franz von Papen. Subsequently, it was effectively dismantled into Nazi German Gaue in 1935. Nevertheless, some Prussian ministries were kept and Hermann Göring remained in his role as Minister President of Prussia until the end of World War II. Former eastern territories of Germany that made up a significant part of Prussia lost the majority of their German population after 1945 as the People's Republic of Poland and the Soviet Union both absorbed these territories and had most of its German inhabitants expelled by 1950. Prussia, deemed a bearer of militarism and reaction by the Allies was officially abolished by an Allied declaration in 1947. The international status of the former eastern territories of Germany was disputed until the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany in 1990, while its return to Germany remains a topic among far right politicians, the Federation of Expellees and various political revisionists.

The term Prussian has often been used, especially outside Germany, to emphasise professionalism, aggressiveness, militarism and conservatism of the Junker class of landed aristocrats in the East who dominated first Prussia and then the German Empire.

Symbols

The main coat of arms of Prussia, as well as the flag of Prussia, depicted a black eagle on a white background.

The black and white national colours were already used by the Teutonic Knights and by the Hohenzollern dynasty. The Teutonic Order wore a white coat embroidered with a black cross with gold insert and black imperial eagle. The combination of the black and white colours with the white and red Hanseatic colours of the free cities Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck, as well as of Brandenburg, resulted in the black-white-red commercial flag of the North German Confederation, which became the flag of the German Empire in 1871.[citation needed]

Suum cuique ("to each, his own"), the motto of the Order of the Black Eagle created by King Frederick I in 1701, was often associated with the whole of Prussia. The Iron Cross, a military decoration created by King Frederick William III in 1813, was also commonly associated with the country.[citation needed] The region, originally populated by Baltic Old Prussians who were Christianised, became a favoured location for immigration by (later mainly Protestant) Germans (see Ostsiedlung), as well as Poles and Lithuanians along the border regions.

Territory

Before its abolition, the territory of the Kingdom of Prussia included the provinces of West Prussia; East Prussia; Brandenburg; Saxony (including much of the present-day state of Saxony-Anhalt and parts of the state of Thuringia in Germany); Pomerania; Rhineland; Westphalia; Silesia (without Austrian Silesia); Lusatia; Schleswig-Holstein; Hanover; Hesse-Nassau; and a small detached area in the south called Hohenzollern, the ancestral home of the Prussian ruling family. The land that the Teutonic Knights occupied was flat and covered with rich soil. The land was perfectly suited to the large-scale raising of wheat.[9] The rise of early Prussia was based on the raising and selling of wheat. Teutonic Prussia became known as the "bread basket of Western Europe" (in German, Kornkammer, or granary). The port cities of Stettin (Szczecin) in Pomerania, Danzig (Gdańsk) in Prussia, Riga in Livonia, Königsberg (Kaliningrad), and Memel (Klaipėda) rose on the back of this wheat production. Wheat production and trade brought Prussia into close relationship with the Hanseatic League during the period of time from 1356 (official founding of the Hanseatic League) until the decline of the League in about 1500.

The expansion of Prussia based on its connection with the Hanseatic League cut both Poland and Lithuania off from the coast of the Baltic Sea and trade abroad.[10] This meant that Poland and Lithuania would be traditional enemies of Prussia, which was still called the Teutonic Knights.[11]

History

Teutonic Order

In 1211, Andrew II of Hungary granted Burzenland in Transylvania as a fiefdom to the Teutonic Knights, a German military order of crusading knights, headquartered in the Kingdom of Jerusalem at Acre. In 1225, he expelled them again, and they had to transfer to the Baltic Sea. Konrad I, the Polish duke of Masovia, unsuccessfully attempted to conquer pagan Prussia in crusades in 1219 and 1222.[12] In 1226, Duke Konrad invited the Teutonic Knights to conquer the Baltic Prussian tribes on his borders.

During 60 years of struggles against the Old Prussians, the Order created an independent state that came to control Prūsa. After the Livonian Brothers of the Sword joined the Teutonic Order in 1237, they also controlled Livonia (now Latvia and Estonia). Around 1252, they finished the conquest of the northernmost Prussian tribe of the Skalvians as well as the western Baltic Curonians, and erected the Memel Castle, which developed into the major port city of Memel (Klaipėda). The final border between Prussia and the adjoining Grand Duchy of Lithuania was determined in the Treaty of Melno in 1422.

The Hanseatic League was officially formed in northern Europe in 1356 as a group of trading cities that came to hold a monopoly on all trade leaving the interior of Europe and Scandinavia and on all sailing trade in the Baltic Sea for foreign countries.[13] The businessmen of the interiors of Sweden, Denmark, and Poland came to feel oppressed by the Hanseatic League.[citation needed]

In the course of the Ostsiedlung (German eastward expansion) process, settlers were invited, bringing changes in the ethnic composition as well as in language, culture, and law. As a majority of these settlers were Germans, Low German became the dominant language.

The Knights were subordinate to the pope and the emperor. Their initially close relationship with the Polish Crown deteriorated after they conquered Polish-controlled Pomerelia and Danzig (Gdańsk) in 1308. Eventually Poland and Lithuania, allied through the Union of Krewo (1385), defeated the Knights in the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg) in 1410.

The Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466) began when the Prussian Confederation, a coalition of Hanseatic cities of western Prussia, rebelled against the Order and requested help from the Polish king. The Teutonic Knights were forced to acknowledge the sovereignty of, and to pay tribute to, King Casimir IV Jagiellon of Poland in the Second Peace of Thorn, losing western Prussia (Royal Prussia) to Poland in the process. Pursuant to the Second Peace of Thorn, two Prussian states were established[14]

Duchy of Prussia

In 1525, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach, a member of a cadet branch of the House of Hohenzollern, became a Lutheran Protestant and secularised the Order's remaining Prussian territories into the Duchy of Prussia.[15] This was the area east of the mouth of the Vistula River, later sometimes called "Prussia proper". For the first time, these lands came into the hands of a branch of the Hohenzollern family. (The Hohenzollern dynasty had ruled the Margraviate of Brandenburg to the west, a German state centred on Berlin, since the 15th century.) Furthermore, with his renunciation of the Order, Albert could now marry and produce legitimate heirs.

Brandenburg-Prussia

Brandenburg and Prussia united two generations later. In 1594 Anna, granddaughter of Albert I and daughter of Duke Albert Frederick (reigned 1568–1618), married her cousin Elector John Sigismund of Brandenburg. When Albert Frederick died in 1618 without male heirs, John Sigismund was granted the right of succession to the Duchy of Prussia, then still a Polish fief. From this time the Duchy of Prussia was in personal union with the Margraviate of Brandenburg. The resulting state, known as Brandenburg-Prussia, consisted of geographically disconnected territories in Prussia, Brandenburg, and the Rhineland lands of Cleves and Mark.

During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), various armies repeatedly marched across the disconnected Hohenzollern lands, especially the occupying Swedes. The ineffective and militarily weak Margrave George William (1619–1640) fled from Berlin to Königsberg, the historic capital of the Duchy of Prussia, in 1637. His successor, Frederick William I (1640–1688), reformed the army to defend the lands.

Frederick William I went to Warsaw in 1641 to render homage to King Władysław IV Vasa of Poland for the Duchy of Prussia, which was still held in fief from the Polish crown. In January 1656, during the first phase of the Second Northern War (1654–1660), he received the duchy as a fief from the Swedish king who later granted him full sovereignty in the Treaty of Labiau (November 1656). In 1657 the Polish king renewed this grant in the treaties of Wehlau and Bromberg. With Prussia, the Brandenburg Hohenzollern dynasty now held a territory free of any feudal obligations, which constituted the basis for their later elevation to kings.

Frederick William I became known[by whom?] as the "Great Elector" for his achievements in organizing the electorate, which he accomplished by establishing an absolute monarchy in Brandenburg-Prussia. Above all, he emphasised the importance of a powerful military to protect the state's disconnected territories, while the Edict of Potsdam (1685) opened Brandenburg-Prussia for the immigration of Protestant refugees (especially Huguenots), and he established a bureaucracy to carry out state administration efficiently.

Kingdom of Prussia

On 18 January 1701, Frederick William's son, Elector Frederick III, upgraded Prussia from a duchy to a kingdom and crowned himself King Frederick I. In the Crown Treaty of 16 November 1700, Leopold I, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, allowed Frederick only to title himself "King in Prussia", not "King of Prussia". The state of Brandenburg-Prussia became commonly known as "Prussia", although most of its territory, in Brandenburg, Pomerania, and western Germany, lay outside Prussia proper. The Prussian state grew in splendour during the reign of Frederick I, who sponsored the arts at the expense of the treasury.[16]

Frederick I was succeeded by his son, Frederick William I (1713–1740), the austere "Soldier King", who did not care for the arts but was thrifty and practical.[citation needed] He is considered the creator of the vaunted Prussian bureaucracy and the professionalised standing army, which he developed into one of the most powerful in Europe, although his troops only briefly saw action during the Great Northern War. In view of the size of the army in relation to the total population, Mirabeau said later: "Prussia, is not a state with an army, but an army with a state." Frederick William also settled more than 20,000 Protestant refugees from Salzburg in thinly populated eastern Prussia, which was eventually extended to the west bank of the River Memel, and other regions. In the treaty of Stockholm (1720), he acquired half of Swedish Pomerania.[citation needed]

The king died in 1740 and was succeeded by his son, Frederick II, whose accomplishments led to his reputation as "Frederick the Great".[17] As crown prince, Frederick had focused, primarily, on philosophy and the arts.[18] He was an accomplished flute player. In 1740, Prussian troops crossed over the undefended border of Silesia and occupied Schweidnitz. Silesia was the richest province of Habsburg Austria.[19] It signalled the beginning of three Silesian Wars (1740–1763).[20] The First Silesian War (1740–1742) and the Second Silesian War (1744–1745) have, historically, been grouped together with the general European war called the War of Austrian Succession (1740–1748). Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI had died on 20 October 1740. He was succeeded to the throne by his daughter, Maria Theresa.

By defeating the Austrian Army at the Battle of Mollwitz on 10 April 1741, Frederick succeeded in conquering Lower Silesia (the northwestern half of Silesia).[21] In the next year, 1742, he conquered Upper Silesia (the southeastern half). Furthermore, in the third Silesian War (usually grouped with the Seven Years' War) Frederick won a victory over Austria at the Battle of Lobositz on 1 October 1756. In spite of some impressive victories afterward, his situation became far less comfortable the following years, as he failed in his attempts to knock Austria out of the war and was gradually reduced to a desperate defensive war. However, he never gave up and on 3 November 1760 the Prussian king won another battle, the hard-fought Battle of Torgau. Despite being several times on the verge of defeat Frederick, allied with Great Britain, Hanover and Hesse-Kassel, was finally able to hold the whole of Silesia against a coalition of Saxony, Austria, France and Russia.[22] Voltaire, a close friend of the king, once described Frederick the Great's Prussia by saying "...it was Sparta in the morning, Athens in the afternoon." From these wars onwards the Austria–Prussia rivalry dominated German politics until 1866.

Silesia, full of rich soils and prosperous manufacturing towns, became a vital region to Prussia, greatly increasing the nation's area, population, and wealth.[23] Success on the battleground against Austria and other powers proved Prussia's status as one of the great powers of Europe. The Silesian Wars began more than a century of rivalry and conflict between Prussia and Austria as the two most powerful states operating within the Holy Roman Empire (although both had extensive territory outside the empire).[24] In 1744, the County of East Frisia fell to Prussia following the extinction of its ruling Cirksena dynasty.

In the last 23 years of his reign until 1786, Frederick II, who understood himself as the "first servant of the state", promoted the development of Prussian areas such as the Oderbruch. At the same time he built up Prussia's military power and participated in the First Partition of Poland with Austria and Russia (1772), an act that geographically connected the Brandenburg territories with those of Prussia proper. During this period, he also opened Prussia's borders to immigrants fleeing from religious persecution in other parts of Europe, such as the Huguenots. Prussia became a safe haven in much the same way that the United States welcomed immigrants seeking freedom in the 19th century.[25]

Frederick the Great, the first "King of Prussia", practised enlightened absolutism. He introduced a general civil code, abolished torture and established the principle that the Crown would not interfere in matters of justice. He also promoted an advanced secondary education, the forerunner of today's German gymnasium (grammar school) system, which prepares the brightest pupils for university studies.[26] The Prussian education system was emulated in various countries, including the United States.[25]

Napoleonic Wars

During the reign of King Frederick William II (1786–1797), Prussia annexed additional Polish territory through further Partitions of Poland. His successor, Frederick William III (1797–1840), announced the union of the Prussian Lutheran and Reformed churches into one church.[27]

Prussia took a leading part in the French Revolutionary Wars, but remained quiet for more than a decade due to the Peace of Basel of 1795, only to go once more to war with France in 1806 as negotiations with that country over the allocation of the spheres of influence in Germany failed. Prussia suffered a devastating defeat against Napoleon Bonaparte's troops in the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, leading Frederick William III and his family to flee temporarily to Memel. Under the Treaties of Tilsit in 1807, the state lost about one third of its area, including the areas gained from the second and third Partitions of Poland, which now fell to the Duchy of Warsaw. Beyond that, the king was obliged to pay a large indemnity, to cap his army at 42,000 men, and to let the French garrison troops throughout Prussia, effectively making the Kingdom a French satellite.[28]

In response to this defeat, reformers such as Stein and Hardenberg set about modernising the Prussian state. Among their reforms were the liberation of peasants from serfdom, the Emancipation of Jews and making full citizens of them. The school system was rearranged, and in 1818 free trade was introduced. The process of army reform ended in 1813 with the introduction of compulsory military service.[29] By 1813, Prussia could mobilize almost 300,000 soldiers, more than half of which were conscripts of the Landwehr of variable quality. The rest consisted of regular soldiers that were deemed excellent by most observers, and very determined to repair the humiliation of 1806.

After the defeat of Napoleon in Russia, Prussia quit its alliance with France and took part in the Sixth Coalition during the "Wars of Liberation" (Befreiungskriege) against the French occupation. Prussian troops under Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher contributed crucially (with the British) in the Battle of Waterloo of June 1815 to the final victory over Napoleon. Prussia's reward in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna was the recovery of her lost territories, as well as the whole of the Rhineland, Westphalia, 40% of Saxony and some other territories. These western lands were of vital importance because they included the Ruhr Area, the centre of Germany's fledgling industrialisation, especially in the arms industry. These territorial gains also meant the doubling of Prussia's population. In exchange, Prussia withdrew from areas of central Poland to allow the creation of Congress Poland under Russian sovereignty.[28] In 1815 Prussia became part of the German Confederation.

Wars of liberation

The first half of the 19th century saw a prolonged struggle in Germany between liberals, who wanted a united, federal Germany under a democratic constitution, and conservatives, who wanted to maintain Germany as a patchwork of independent, monarchical states with Prussia and Austria competing for influence. One small movement that signaled a desire for German unification in this period was the Burschenschaft student movement, by students who encouraged the use of the black-red-gold flag, discussions of a unified German nation, and a progressive, liberal political system. Because of Prussia's size and economic importance, smaller states began to join its free trade area in the 1820s. Prussia benefited greatly from the creation in 1834 of the German Customs Union (Zollverein), which included most German states but excluded Austria.[27]

In 1848 the liberals saw an opportunity when revolutions broke out across Europe. Alarmed, King Frederick William IV agreed to convene a National Assembly and grant a constitution. When the Frankfurt Parliament offered Frederick William the crown of a united Germany, he refused on the grounds that he would not accept a crown from a revolutionary assembly without the sanction of Germany's other monarchs.[30]

The Frankfurt Parliament was forced to dissolve in 1849, and Frederick William issued Prussia's first constitution by his own authority in 1850. This conservative document provided for a two-house parliament. The lower house, or Landtag was elected by all taxpayers, who were divided into three classes whose votes were weighted according to the amount of taxes paid. Women and those who paid no taxes had no vote. This allowed just over one-third of the voters to choose 85% of the legislature, all but assuring dominance by the more well-to-do men of the population. The upper house, which was later renamed the Herrenhaus ("House of Lords"), was appointed by the king. He retained full executive authority and ministers were responsible only to him. As a result, the grip of the landowning classes, the Junkers, remained unbroken, especially in the eastern provinces.[31]

Wars of unification

In 1862 King Wilhelm I appointed Otto von Bismarck as Prime Minister of Prussia. Bismarck was determined to defeat both the liberals and conservatives and increase Prussian supremacy and influence among the German states. There has been much debate as to whether Bismarck actually planned to create a united Germany when he set out on this journey, or whether he simply took advantage of the circumstances that fell into place. Certainly his memoirs paint a rosy picture of an idealist[citation needed], but these were written with the benefit of hindsight and certain crucial events could not have been predicted. What is clear is that Bismarck curried support from large sections of the people by promising to lead the fight for greater German unification. He eventually guided Prussia through three wars, which together brought William the position of German Emperor.